# Watts Towers Arts Center Arts center in Watts, Los Angeles. - Address: 1727 East 107th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90002 - Website: https://www.wattstowers.org - Directions: - On the map: https://onview.so/la/map/watts-towers-arts-center ## Exhibitions ### *From Alkebulan “Africa” to Watts* Dates not published · on view Works from the center’s collection, curated by Rosie Lee Hooks and Rogelio Acevedo A display of 52 West African masks and sculptures from Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Ghana and Senegal, donated to the center in 1985 by Congressman Augustus Hawkins. Full details: [wattstowers.org](https://www.wattstowers.org/copy-of-exhibitions-2) On On View: https://onview.so/la/watts-towers-arts-center/from-alkebulan-africa-to-watts ### *Spirits of the Ancestors* Group exhibition · Dates not published · on view · Charles Mingus Gallery Toni Love, Judson R Powell, Charles Dickson, Willie Middlebrook, John Outterbridge and others Thirteen shovels painted, mosaicked and built up by Watts master artists as tributes to the community’s ancestors. Center director Rosie Lee Hooks commissioned thirteen respected Los Angeles artists to use shovels as their canvases. Some are painted or covered in mosaic, others treated as sculpture, and they carry everything from American flags and mirrors to images of the Watts Towers and a full-size trumpet. The set was first shown at the 2003 groundbreaking of the Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center. This presentation marks that building’s opening. Varnette Honeywood, Gilbert “Magu” Lujan, Elliot Pinkney and Kenzi Shiokava are among the other participants. Full details: [wattstowers.org](https://www.wattstowers.org/copy-of-exhibitions-2) On On View: https://onview.so/la/watts-towers-arts-center/spirits-of-the-ancestors ### *66 Signs of Neon Commemoration* Group exhibition · Dates not published · on view Noah Purifoy, Judson Powell, Max Neufeldt and others Assemblages made from debris of the 1965 Watts Uprising, marking the sixtieth anniversary of the 1966 "66 Signs of Neon" exhibition. In August 1966, a year after the Watts Uprising, Noah Purifoy and Judson Powell gathered burned wood, melted neon lead and other industrial scrap from the ruins. With six more artists, including Max Neufeldt, Harry Drinkwater and Arthur Secunda, they made sixty-six assemblages in thirty days for a Watts arts festival at Markham Middle School. The works toured universities and museums across the country from 1966 to 1971, and the show helped lay the foundations of the Watts art movement. This presentation marks its 60th anniversary. Full details: [wattstowers.org](https://www.wattstowers.org/copy-of-exhibitions-2) On On View: https://onview.so/la/watts-towers-arts-center/66-signs-of-neon-commemoration --- On View's listing, as of Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Every gallery and museum in Los Angeles: https://onview.so/la.md. All of On View: https://onview.so/llms.txt